This invention relates to apparatus for providing an emergency breathing path for patients experiencing upper respiratory obstruction, and more particularly, to cricothyrotomy apparatus for establishing the desired emergency breathing path by inserting a breathing tube through the cricothyroid membrane of a patient by a user, who is generally unfamiliar with the necessary surgical techniques.
A variety of situations exist in which it is necessary to provide a patient with an emergency breathing path. Thus, asphyxiation often occurs due to the inadvertant blocking of the trachea or windpipe, such as may occur when food is improperly swallowed and becomes lodged in the trachea; or due to a laryngal spasm or constriction resulting from a variety of allergic reactions.
In the event of such laryngal or tracheal obstruction, it is necessary to quickly provide an alternative breathing path to the lungs, to prevent death or brain damage.
A variety of surgical apparatus, including a variety of tracheotomy or cricothyrotomy tubes, have been evolved which are inserted into the windpipe beneath the area of obstruction, to provide an alternative emergency breathing path for the patient. The insertion of such cricothyrotomy or tracheotomy tubes requires surgical skills, and is generally performed in hospitals, or by surgically skilled personnel brought to the site of the emergency.
Unfortunately, patients experiencing windpipe blockages are often not located where the necessary apparatus or surgically trained personnel are available, and many patients asphyxiate long before the necessary apparatus or personnel become available. Thus, a large number of people asphyxiate each year in restaurants and in the home, due to food lodging in the windpipe or laryngal spasms or constrictions resulting from allergic reactions.
The desirability of providing cricothyrotomy apparatus which may be used by lay personnel in treating patients asphyxiating due to a windpipe blockage has been recognized, as for example by Tarsitano in U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,113, in which a pocket-sized cricothyrotomy set is provided having in a single readily portable kit, a syringe and needle for providing a local anesthetic; a surgical knife for cutting the necessary opening in the throat; and a breathing tube for insertion into the throat opening. Problems, however, arise in the use of this kit, since it is necessary that the user have a relatively sophisticated knowledge of the procedure to be followed. Such user must be aware of the particular location where the cut is to be made, and must have the presence of mind and intestinal fortitude to first stick a needle into the throat and release the necessary anesthetic; and thereafter actually cut into the throat with the knife blade provided, with the subsequent insertion of the breathing tube. As is apparent, most people in their homes, and certainly in restaurants, or the like, do not have either the information or presence of mind sufficient to perform the necessary surgical functions.
Wolf, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,334, shows another form of cricothyrotomy kit in which a plurality of hollow needles are arranged in a holder adapted to be positioned against the neck of the wearer. Within the needles are a plurality of stilettes or thin surgicalknives, which are forced through the tubes into the patient's throat, and thereafter the hollow needles are forced into the throat about the stilettes, to provide the necessary air passage. As with Tarsitano, the user must know precisely where to locate the holder and needles, and must have the intestinal fortitude to drive the stilettes and needles into the throat of the patient. As is apparent, the average lay person neither has the skill nor desire to utilize equipment of the type evolved by Wolf or Tarsitano.